Why build an oil terminal in Vancouver, Washington? It's the shortest distance to San Francisco.
A reader sent me the story (thank you). Puget Sound Business Journal is reporting:
Vancouver is the nearest point to the Bakken oil fields of North Dakota to load a ship bound for West Coast refineries.
For those concerned about oil train derailments and the environmental mayhem they cause, Vancouver helps mitigate the risk.
“If you start in North Dakota, (Vancouver) is the closest place you can get to load onto ocean-going vessels. The Port of Vancouver minimizes the amount of miles crude goes by land,” said Rick Weyen, vice president for logistics for Tesoro Corp. and vice president for operations for its logistics.
Oil producers are scrambling to create the infrastructure to get the Midwestern-sourced oil to refineries. The infrastructure to the East Coast, South and Gulf Coast is fairly well established, but the West Coast is underserved.
“The West Coast is kind of the missing piece,” he said.
Declining production from Alaska’s and the West Coast refineries need the Midwestern products.
Oil began moving to the coast by rail in 2013 — about 150,000 barrels a day or one percent of total demand.
Weyen said rail is the most effective way to move crude oil. Pipelines cost billions to build and generally depend on buyers willing to enter long-term agreements. No shipper is ready to commit to a 10-year contract, he said.
Politically, he said, there is no way to get a pipeline from North Dakota to the West Coast.
Weyen said Tesoro pursued the chance to develop a terminal at the Port of Vancouver USA in part because of the port’s $175 million investment in rail upgrades. The venture would handle up to four trains per day, with oil transferring to double-hulled, U.S.-flagged tankers bound for refineries in California.
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Ebola
It started with two on the "watch list." It quickly went to 10, where it was this morning. It's now up to 100. Will the affected Dallas public school be closed for 21 days? No way, but I bet there are discussions. And now we have a steady stream of US airmen and US soldiers going back and forth between West Africa and the US.
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Something Doesn't Add Up
Everyone "knows" that the only way to become infected with Ebola is through direct contact with bodily fluids from someone ill with the disease. So, how does an NBC free-lance camera man come down with Ebola. If he denies coming in contact with any infected bodily fluid, this is more worrisome than we are being led to believe.
I guess you forgot but a few weeks back, you posted a link a port of Vancouver presentation, the whole point of which was to use a combination of rail and tanker (ship) to ship crude to west coast refineries as an alternative to using all rail. The conclusion was that rail to Vancouver and sea to Cali refineries was cost competitive.
ReplyDeleteThank you. I don't remember everything I post and I certainly don't remember the specifics, nor would it matter in most cases since "things" are so dynamic. But with all the posting I start to get a feeling for a subject. So, for example, I know very little about California energy, but I'm starting to get a pretty good feeling for the "big picture." My "world-view" of the "big picture" of California energy may be wrong, but for me it's a starting point. As I come across new information, my "world-view" is tweaked.
DeleteSo, for example, right or wrong, it's my impression that a major source of crude oil that used to arrive California by ocean-going tanker (i.e., Alaska crude oil) is "drying up." The loss of Alaska oil will have to be made up from other sources, which seem to be a) OPEC; b) Bakken; c) west Texas.